Hitting out at the union finance minister Arun Jaitley for advocating repeal of J&K’s special status, National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah Friday said the Bharatiya Janata Party and its “proxies” in Kashmir were “working on an agenda” to abolish Articles 370 and 35A, which define state’s relationship with the union of India.
Omar reiterated that any tinkering with these Articles willopen the debate on legality of accession of J&K to the union of India.
Addressing a press conference here, Omar said the upcomingparliament polls as well as the state assembly elections would be “mostcrucial” for protecting state’s special position.
“Our voters will not only have to safeguard themselvesagainst the BJP only, but against their proxies in Kashmir as well who arecarrying forward their (BJP’s) agenda. They want to destroy the state’s specialposition,” Omar said.
He said J&K’s special identity is facing a “severethreat”.
“This threat didn’t emerge today; it has been there for thepast five years, particularly after the PDP-BJP formed the coalitiongovernment,” he said.
“We don’t need more proof now. Arun Jaitley has expressedviewpoints of the government and the BJP,” he said.
On Thursday, Jaitley had written in a blog that Article 35Awas “surreptitiously” included by a presidential notification in theconstitution in 1954.
Article 35A, Jaitley wrote, was neither part of the originalconstitution framed by the constituent assembly, nor did it come as aconstitutional amendment under Article 368 of the constitution which requiresan approval by two-third majority of both houses of the parliament.
Omar said he is surprised to see people talking aboutremoving J&K’s special status.
“How do they want to do it? This state became part of thecountry on the basis of this special status. If you want to debate Articles 35Aand 370, do it, but it will raise the question on accession of J&K to unionof India also,” Omar said, cautioning the BJP to “tread carefully” on thisissue.
The National Conference leader said J&K was not the onlystate enjoying special position, but many other states like those in thenortheast and Himachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar also had a specialposition.
“But they (BJP) attack J&K’s special position andArticles 35A and 370 only. They are creating a confusion that this specialposition is for the Valley’s Muslim only, while the fact is that it benefitspeople of all (J&K) regions,” said Omar.
He termed as “wrong” Jaitley’s statement that Article 35Awas a reason for J&K’s poverty.
“It is completely wrong…if the state is suffering, it is notbecause of Article 35A, but militancy and guns,” Omar said, adding that before1989 when militancy erupted, J&K was “among fastest growing states”.
Omar also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for hishandling of the situation in Kashmir.
“If Modi sahab had dealt with the situation of the statewell and kept it in the same condition as the UPA had handed it over to him andwe (NC-Congress) had (handed over) to PDP-BJP, we would have witnessed a lot ofdevelopment,” Omar said.
To a question, Omar said militancy was the reason for”weakened economic position” of the state.
“There are many reasons for militancy…the fact is that weare suffering because of militancy for the past 30 years,” Omar said.
He said the neighboring country, “misuse” of Raj Bhavan bythe government of India to “subvert” democratic decisions and to some extentthe “situation that was created in the state” were among reasons for militancyin Kashmir.
Asked about NC’s contention that it would contest theextension of two amendments of the constitution of India to J&K, Omar saidthe “paper-work takes time”.
“We don’t want to put a weak case in the court. As soon asour petition is ready, it will be filed. The work is in progress and notsomething that has been put away,” he said.
Talking to reporters later, Omar said six new parties havecome up in Kashmir in past 15 days.
“But this new election is not about these parties, butprotecting what we have,” he said.
Omar ruled out any “friendly contest” between the NationalConference and Congress during the upcoming polls.
“There is no alliance with Congress. But in order to ensurethat secular vote doesn’t get divided, we chose not to field candidates on twoJammu seats. The Congress chose on its own not to field a candidate againstFarooq Abdullah sahib,” Omar said.
On fielding of candidates by the Congress in Kashmir, Omarsaid: “Let’s be honest, the candidate for northern Kashmir could have been bitmore serious. My party’s arrangement with the Congress is about ensuring thatthe Prime Minister Modi doesn’t get a second term”.
Omar said the “mahagathbandan” (grand alliance) was notworking at the Centre. “I was not a big supporter of it. This arrangement ofputting 16 to 18 parties together is pointless,” he said.
He said the Congress was “only one pan-India oppositionparty, and all other regional opposition parties will have to arrive at somesort of seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress”.
“So where is thequestion of mahagathbandan? In some places this seat-sharing arrangement hasworked like in Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and we have ensured secular votedoesn’t get divided in J&K. But this has failed in many other places, inDelhi, West Bengal and other states,” said Omar.
“Mahagathbandan was a mistake in terms, but what is alsointeresting is that Prime Minister Modi claims that this was everybody againstone, but it looks like Prime Minister Modi has more allies that Rahul Gandhi(Congress president)”.
Omar was flanked by party members including Nasir AslamWani, Aga Rouhullah, Tanveer Sadiq and Imran Nabi Dar.